First female K9 officer now on patrol

HAMILTON COUNTY, Ohio (WKRC) - Four new four-legged police officers will be on the streets this weekend. After 14 weeks of training, four new police dogs and their handlers graduated Friday morning, August 5, at the Cincinnati Police Academy. The local K9 corps is no longer an all-boys club. Two Hamilton County sheriff's deputies, a Cincinnati police officer and an Amberley Village officer joined the ranks of K9 handlers during a ceremony at the police academy. But what everyone really came to see was the dogs. They put on a show. Andrea Alt was the only woman in the class. She and her Belgian Malinois, Creed, will be Amberley Village's first K9’s. “He's already a good police officer but he's going to be a great police officer for Amberley Village and the surrounding agencies that want to use us,” said Alt. Creed showed off his training by finding a pistol hidden in the grass outside the police academy. Others sniffed out drugs hidden under a car and followed commands on the leash and off. Officer Alt wasn't the first female K9 handler in Hamilton County. But there was a female breaking ground Friday. Sicaria, the Belgian Malinois, was the first female K9 to go on patrol in Cincinnati. There have been other female K9s that sniffed out drugs. But she will be the first, full-blown female patrol K9. Sicaria was handler Jason Ader's second K9. He said she was as good an officer as any of the boys. Officer Alt said gender talk didn't bother her but she thought, in 2016, it really didn't matter. Friday four females and males, four men and women, teamed up and got it done. And put man and woman's best friend to work, serving everyone. Andrea Alt is one of two, current female K9 handlers in Hamilton County. All the dogs in the class were donated by sponsors arranged by the Matt Haverkamp Foundation.